News

The African American Film Critics Association (Aafca) has named Amazon MGM Studios’ Nickel Boys, director RaMell Ross, and The Piano Lesson director Malcolm Washington among its upcoming honourees.

Ross will receive the Spotlight Award and Washington the Emerging Director Award at 16th annual Aafca Awards on February 19, 2025, at Beverly Wilshire hotel.

Nicole Avant, a political activist and producer on Netflix’s upcoming wartime feature The Six Triple Eight, will collect the Beacon Award, while Ray Fisher, who stars in Netflix’s The Piano Lesson, will receive the Breakout Performance Award.

Aafca will also recognise talents at its 2025 Special Achievement Awards...

Dissident Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf and his filmmaker children Maysam and Hana, alongside producer of TV series Have I Got News For You Jimmy Mulville, have called on the UK government to resettle Afghanistan’s creatives.

They spoke during a hearing with the cross-party culture, media and sport (Cms) committee today, highlighting the danger Afghan creatives are facing in their home country.

“The Taliban is an anti-cultural movement… Bringing these people here is not just saving the life of individuals. It’s saving culture,” said Makhmalbaf, drawing on several examples of artists who have been killed in Afghanistan.

“There are...

“This is a matter of saving the culture of Afghanistan,” Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf said to a parliamentary committee this morning as he pled with the UK government to house dozens of creatives in danger from the Taliban.

Makhmalbaf, a decorated auteur who has been campaigning and helping around 800 Afghani creatives and their families exit the nation for the past three years, appeared in front of the UK’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee (Cmsc) alongside his children, filmmakers Hana Makhmalbaf and Maysam Makhmalbaf, and Hat Trick boss Jimmy Mulville, to call on lawmakers to take action. This came after Hana Makhmalbaf made a documentary feature about the plight of Afghani creatives titled The List, which played at several festivals.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf stressed that accepting Afghani actors, journalists, poets and dancers into the UK would be of net benefit to the nation while simultaneously helping save lives and enrich local culture.

1. New Currents Award

[Winner 1] The Land of Morning Calm | Park Ri-woong | Korea

Jury Comment: The Land of Morning Calm demonstrates Park Ri-woong’s impressive storytelling skills and ability for subtle emotional depth. The film explores the personal struggles of its characters while shedding light on the hardships of a rural coastal community. Through precise, deliberate pacing, Park navigates themes of economic uncertainty, loss, xenophobia, and societal prejudice, creating a narrative that never falters. The ensemble cast delivers terrific performances, portraying layered characters with nuance, while Park brings clarity to their inner turmoil and the broader social issues, resulting in a powerful, resonant drama.

[Winner 2] Ma – Cry of Silence | The Maw Naing | Myanmar/ Korea/ Singapore/ France/ Norway/ Qatar

Jury Comment: Ma – Cry of Silence is honored for its courageous portrayal of resistance

to historical and ongoing political challenges under Myanmar’s political junta. Poetic and contemplative, using precise language and a clear understanding of the economy of means,...

The Busan International Film Festival has revealed its award winners and confirmed earlier dates for 2025.

Park Ri-woong’s “The Land of Morning Calm” (Korea) and The Maw Naing’s “Ma – Cry of Silence”(Myanmar/Korea/Singapore/France/Norway/Qatar) shared the New Currents Award.

Rima Das’ “Village Rockstars 2” (India/Singapore) and Tom Lin Shu-Yu’s “Yen and Ai-Lee” (Taiwan) jointly claimed the Kim Jiseok Award for more experienced filmmakers.

“The Land of Morning Calm” impressed the jury with its “storytelling skills and ability for subtle emotional depth,” exploring personal struggles within a rural coastal community. “Ma – Cry of Silence” was recognized for its “courageous portrayal of resistance” to Myanmar’s political challenges. “The Land of Morning Calm” additionally secured the Kb New Currents Audience Award. The film also won the Netpac Award, which announced previously as part of the Busan Vision Awards.

The New Currents Award jury was led by...

Tajikistan has selected Iranian director Behrouz Sebt Rasoul’s drama Melody as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

It marks the second time the central Asian country has chosen the feature to represent it in the Oscar race, after it selected the drama for the 96th edition but missed the deadline for getting all the required material to the Academy.

“It was submitted on time for 97th Academy Awards,” Sebt Rasoul told Deadline via email.

Combining social drama and mysticism, the film offers rare a cinematic vision of rural life in the mountainous landlocked country, which counts neighbors Afghanistan and China among its neighbors.

Diman Zandi stars as the titular Melody who teaches music at a centre for children with cancer. When her students ask her to compose a piece of music using the sound of 30 birds, Melody travels back to her...

Africa Amplifies

Netflix presented its upcoming South African content lineup at Mip Africa on Tuesday. The slate includes series “Love Never Lies: South Africa,” a reality show featuring six couples testing their trust with lie detectors. Premieres Nov. 29.

The streamer also unveiled several films. “Happiness Is,” the latest instalment in the romantic comedy franchise, following a group of friends navigating personal challenges, debuts Oct. 18. “Umjolo” is a four-part anthology series, with the first film “Umjolo: The Gone Girl” releasing Nov. 8. The story centers on a young woman whose engagement takes an unexpected turn. And “Disaster Holiday,” a comedy about a workaholic attempting to prove his parenting skills during a family vacation, is set to release Dec. 13.

Ben Amadasun, Netflix’s VP of content for Middle East and Africa, said: “We are incredibly excited to continue strengthening our relationships with our production partners in South Africa and bringing diverse and authentic...

Kim Jiseok Award, the competition of new features from leading Asian directors, will be juried by: Christian Jeune, Prasanna Vithanage, and Shin Suwon

(From left) Christian Jeune, Prasanna Vithanage, and Shin Suwon

Kim Jiseok Award was created to remember and honor the late Biff Program Director Kim Jiseok, who devoted his whole life to discovering and supporting the growth of Asian cinema. The competition category features new works by veteran Asian directors selected for the Jiseok section. Two best films are selected and each awarded a prize of Usd 10,000. The jury for the Kim Jiseok Award at the 29th Busan International Film Festival has been appointed as follows: Christian Jeune, Director of Film Department at the Cannes Film Festival, who has contributed greatly to discovering and promoting Asian films to the world for the past 30 years; Prasanna Vithanage, an influential South Asian director and film educator, and the winner of...

After a relatively slow August, studios are finally starting to gear up for fall and winter, the more awards-focused seasons. Preparing for its theatrical run following its Cannes premiere this past May, Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin's weird and wonderful-looking Universal Language fits squarely into that latter category.

This film's...

Newsflash: Iran has invaded the sleepy Canadian city of Winnipeg. Correction: Iranian cinema has actually invaded Winnipeg. Precision: Two Iranian movies that launched the nation onto the international film scene, Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987) and Jafar Panahi’s The White Balloon (1995), have somehow found their way into the capital of Manitoba.

What exactly they’re doing there is never explained. Nor is it really the point of director Matthew Rankin’s bizarre and enchanting experimental comedy Universal Language, which picked up the first-ever audience award in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Starring the director himself alongside a cast of Farsi-speaking locals both young and old, the film is rather hard to describe on paper, but let’s give it a shot.

We’re in snow-covered Winnipeg, which half-resembles the drab, midsized Canadian city, and half looks like a neigborhood somewhere in Tehran — not present-day Tehran, but Tehran circa the 1980s and 90s.

Despite being set in a parallel-universe Winnipeg where the people talk in Farsi and the world around them seems as if it’s been frozen in time since the mid-1980s, the haunted but hopeful “Universal Language” is an unmistakably modern film at heart.

Described by writer-director Matthew Rankin as a piece of “autobiographical hallucination,” this wonderfully deadpan whatsit is the work of a white 43-year-old Canadian man who fell in love with the movies a time when “foreign” cinema was becoming more available to people outside major cultural hubs. He found that Kanoon-style fables like “Where Is the Friend’s House?” and “The White Balloon” spoke to him in a way that few English-language films ever had. That discovery sparked a cross-cultural dialogue that eventually compelled Rankin to visit Tehran in an effort to locate the auteurs who had inspired him and learn why their films had whispered in his ear.

Honorary Golden Cyclo (offered by the Agglomeration Community and the city of Vesoul): to Zero Chou director (Taiwan) et à Tu Du-chih, sound engineer (Taiwan).

Cyclo D'Or (offered by the Regional Council of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté), International Jury: President: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, director (Iran), members: Zero Chou, director (Taiwan), Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, actress (Iran), Shogen, actor (Japon).

The Snow Leopard de Pema Tseden (Chine-Tibet) –Through the mysterious relationship between the monk and the snow leopard, the traditional worldview of the Tibetan people is revealed – a realm of spiritual emotion that is challenging to express. The director skillfully captures this enchanting world with great precision, making it a remarkable and profoundly moving achievement.

Film interprets the conflicts of the human world through a spiritual lens, this work is a truly rare gem!

Grand Jury Award:

Film Review: Scream (2023) by Kenzhebek Shaikakov

Scream by Kenzhebek Shaikakov (Kazakhstan). The film has magical realism style that truly commendable,...

The late Pema Tseden’s “Snow Leopard” (China) won the top prize, the Golden Cyclo, at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema on Tuesday.

The film, which previously won awards at the Tokyo and Hainan festivals, also won Vesoul’s National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (Inalco) jury prize and actor Tseten Tashi scored a jury special mention. Pema Tseden (aka Wanmacaidan) died in May last year, age 53.

The grand jury award went to Kenzhebek Shaikakov’s “Scream” (Kazakhstan), which also won the Netpac award and the Mark Haaz award. “Scream” actors Orynbek Shaimaganbetov and Arnur Akram were accorded a jury prize special mention. The film shared the Mark Haaz award with Rajesh Jala’s “The Spark” (India), which also had a special mention at the film critics’ award.

“Solids by The Seashore” by Patiparn Boontarig (Thailand) won the jury prize and also the Inalco favorite award.

Acclaimed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf will serve as jury president at the 30th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (Viffac), which runs from February 6-13.

Held in France, this year’s edition will spotlight Taiwanese cinema and Malayalam-language films from India. A total of 92 films from 29 countries will be screened.

Makhmalbaf’s works include A Moment of Innocence (1996), which won a special mention at the Locarno Film Festival, as well as Kandahar (2001), which won the Ecumenical Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Other jury members at Viffac this year include Taiwanese director Zero Chou, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2007, Iranian actress Fatemed Motamed-Arya and Japanese actor Shogen.

There are 17 films across the fiction and documentary competitions, which come from China, Korea, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal and Taiwan. There are two world premieres, five international premieres, six European premieres and four French premieres.

Taiwan and India in the spotlight at the 30th Vesoul Iff of Asian Cinema

The 30th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema will feature 92 films, including 52 never-before-seen films from 29 countries, under the banner of commitment!

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iranian director with 60 international awards to his credit, is President of the Jury. Other members include Taiwanese director Zero Chou, winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin 2007, Fatemed Motamed-Arya, the most awarded Iranian actress in the history of Iranian cinema, and Japanese actor Shogen, cinema ambassador at the Sea-Okinawa Pan-Pacific International Film Festival.

The 17 films in the fiction and documentary competitions come from China, Korea, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal and Taiwan. Four are French premieres, six European premieres, five international premieres and two world premieres.

Feature Film Competition :

China: All Ears by Liu Jiayin – China (Tibet): The Snow Leopard by Pema Tseden – Korea: Work to...

Blackbird Lands In Osaka

The Osaka Asian Film Festival has added eight more titles to its line-up, including the award-winning Georgian drama “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” which will play in competition.

Elene Naveriani’s “Blackbird,” about a middle-aged woman’s relationship decision, has had wide festival play in Europe and earned multiple prizes for lead actor Eka Chavleishvili.

Other additions are Cambodian directing duo Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea’s “Tenement”; the world premiere of Hong Kong director Ricky Ko’s “Out of the Shadow”; “Supposed,” by Thanakorn Pongsuwan and “Death Whisperer,” by Taweewat Wantha, which expand the festival’s selection of Thai films to eight; and “The Winter of 1905,” a 1981 film by Hong Kong director Yu Wei-Cheng, which joins the Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2024 special section.

Other revival inclusions are: the 4K restored director’s cut of Patrick Tam’s 1982 Hong Kong movie “Nomad” and “240 Hours in One Day,...

No reasonably intelligent person imagines an artist’s statement about the horrors in Gaza would, in fact, end those horrors, but there are always limits to what one can take and hopes for what one could do. It might even be said that, as observers of the world and human behavior, filmmakers are especially inclined to recoil. When I interviewed Pedro Costa last month he spoke, unprompted, of a situation that’s only grown worse: “It’s very clear that we cannot stand images anymore. I can’t. I can’t. The images of the world for me [Exhales] I can’t. I turn my eyes, and I’m sure you do the same. It’s unbearable.” When I spoke with Anthony Dod Mantle a couple of weeks later it, again, emerged––vis-a-vis The Zone of Interest, whose own cinematographer alluded to it the next day. It’s difficult being a person in the world,...

“I hope we can communicate and reconcile again,” said Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon on the opening night of the South Korean city’s film festival.

With so much of the dialogue in opening drama “Because I Hate Korea” discussing Korean societal rigidities, group loyalties, long working hours and poor pay (which cause the protagonist to emigrate to laid-back New Zealand), it is easy to forget that many of these characteristics are what may have saved this year’s Busan International FIlm Festival from going off the rails.

Mid-year, the festival’s aging senior management had a self-inflicted meltdown (a senior moment?) when chairman and co-founder Lee Yong-kwan set off a chain of events that caused multiple resignations, highlighting the old city-versus-festival political divide and alienating local sponsors and industry guilds.

This was dirty laundry that Busan should have washed out of its system in the years-long aftermath of the 2014 “The...

It’s no exaggeration to say that Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has been through a fair amount of drama this year.

The turmoil started in May when Biff chairman Lee Yong-kwan appointed a close associate, Cho Jongkook, as managing director alongside artistic director Huh Moonyung, a decision that proved highly unpopular with some sectors of the local Korean film industry.

Huh resigned, and in an apparently unrelated development, was accused of sexual harassment by a festival employee around the same time. Lee also resigned, Cho was dismissed by the Biff board, and Oh Seok-geun, director of Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm), who had supported Lee’s decision to hire Cho, also stepped down. By early July, four of the festival’s top management were out of the door.

Fortunately, the festival has a strong layer of middle management with many years experience. When the top brass departed,...

The festival will open with ‘Because I Hate Korea’ and close with ‘The Movie Emperor’.

The Busan International Film Festival has revealed the full line-up for its 2023 edition and announced that Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat will receive the Asian Filmmaker of the Year award.

The festival in South Korea will open with the world premiere of Jang Kun-jae’s Because I Hate Korea and close with Ning Hao’s Chinese film industry satire The Movie Emperor, starring Andy Lau, following its debut at Toronto.

At an online press conference today, organisers also revealed that Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat...

The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites.

“The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference.

International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”).

Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award. The Korean Cinema Award will presented to the late Yun Jung-hee, the actress who starred in “The General’s Mustache” and Lee Chang-dong’s 2010 drama “Poetry.

The film by Iranian director Behrouz Sebt Rasoul will represent Tajikistan at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Tajikistan has submitted Behrouz Sebt Rasoul’s Melody for the 2024 Oscars, marking its first entry in 18 years and third to date.

It was submitted for the best international feature film category by the Union of Cinematographers of Tajikistan.

Written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Sebt Rasoul, the story follows a woman who teaches music at a centre for children with cancer. When her students request she compose a piece of music using the sound of birds, Melody travels back to her home village to find...

Cinema in Iran began to blossom in the 1950s and 1960s, kicking off what was to become one of the world's most celebrated national cinemas. What was coined the Iranian New Wave more or less includes films beginning in the 1960s all the way through the early 2010s, which encompasses the bulk of Iranian film history. Filmmaking shifted but did not stop after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when many artists went into exile and more extreme censorship was imposed. Today, Iranian cinema that reaches the global market has a particular character to it, characterized by directors including Asghar Farhadi and Jafar Panahi, who have received international acclaim for their grounded features depicting the nuances of Iranian society. As such, this list reflects films of this nature.

In chronological order, we examine 6 Iranian films from 6 different Iranian directors that trace the diversity of these movies through the years, examining stories that have...

By Olivia Popp

Screened in the Un Certain Regards section of 1995 Cannes, Mohsen Makhmalbaf's “Salaam Cinema” was created as a tribute to motion pictures itself, a centennial celebration of the Lumière brothers' first films. It is a fascinating, complex metatheatrical look into the duality of acting and action, film as a medium and industry, and the reframing of human desire and emotion when the boundary between reality and fiction is manipulated. Shot to look and even function like a documentary, the filmmaker illuminates the undercurrents of humanity, and by examining humanity, he illuminates the undercurrents of cinema.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

Makhmalbaf plays a fictional version of himself as “the director,” running a casting call for a new film where thousands of hopeful actors show up. Within its short 75-minute runtime, he pushes a slew of auditionees to their limits under his...

Kim Ji-seok’s death in 2017 truly shocked the Asian movie world, as the Korean Head programmer of Busan International Film Festival was a rather crucial part of both Biff and of Asian cinema. Kim Young-jo’s documentary functions as a filmic memorial to him, while addressing both his own and the festival’s history.

“Jiseok” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

In that regard, the movie includes many interviews with people who were affected by him, with a number of “A-listers” talking with high regard about Kim. Jafar Panahi, Hirokazu Koreeda, Tsai Ming-liang, Mohsen Makhmalbaf are among the biggest names presented here, with the latter in particular highlighting his love in the most eloquent fashion. Where the film truly thrives, however, is upon the discussions with the Asean directors, which were probably the ones that benefitted the most by Kim Ji-seok’s support, while forming truly meaningful relationships with him.

Kim Ji-seok’s death in 2017 truly shocked the Asian movie world, as the Korean Head programmer of Busan International Film Festival was a rather crucial part of both Biff and of Asian cinema. Kim Young-jo’s documentary functions as a filmic memorial to him, while addressing both his own and the festival’s history.

Jiseok is screening at Singapore International Film Festival

In that regard, the movie includes many interviews with people who were affected by him, with a number of “A-listers” talking with high regard about Kim. Jafar Panahi, Hirokazu Koreeda, Tsai Ming-liang, Mohsen Makhmalbaf are among the biggest names presented here, with the latter in particular highlighting his love in the most eloquent fashion. Where the film truly thrives, however, is upon the discussions with the Asean directors, which were probably the ones that benefitted the most by Kim Ji-seok’s support, while forming truly meaningful relationships with him.

Entrance to the Invisible Cinema at the Austrian Filmmuseum.In 1989, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the Austrian Filmmuseum opened its famed “Invisible Cinema,” according to specifications laid out by filmmaker, theorist, and museum co-founder Peter Kubelka. Modeled after Kubelka’s original invisible cinema, built in 1970 at New York’s Anthology Film Archives, the Filmmuseum’s version is a black box creation that, by allowing for the least amount of peripheral light possible, points the viewer’s focus directly at the projected image. It is, as far as seating, quality of projection, and immersive atmosphere, an essentially perfect cinema. It was one of the places I most eagerly hoped to visit upon my first trip to the Vienna International Film Festival (Viennale), which this year celebrated its 60th anniversary; luckily, as one of the the festival’s primary venues, the Filmmuseum is a frequent destination during the Viennale’s...

Kamila Andini, Indonesian filmmaker and member of the jury at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, said that she would look out for “Asian texture” among the films presented in the festival’s premiere New Currents competition section.

French director Alain Guiraudie said that he would be seeking “new colors” and “new flavors.” He added that he thought Asian cinema could be “enigmatic and mysterious.”

Both were speaking at a meet the press event on Thursday, the first full day of the festival. And jurors have yet to start screening the competition titles.

Festival director Huh Moonyoung was on hand to remind all present that New Currents is the festival’s most prestigious and important section. But his task moderating the session was minimal.

Such was the eloquence and care taken by the jurors that in an hour there was time only for three questions.

Serge Toubiana, jury head,...

Mohsen Makhmalbaf is an internationally known Iranian filmmaker, famous for features such as “A Moment of Innocence”, “Gabbeh”, “The Silence” and “The Gardener”. He belongs to the Iranian New Wave Movement, which also included his colleague Abbas Kiarostami, Amir Naderi and Majid Majidi. Over the course of his career he has made over 30 movies, which have won more than 50 awards in international film festivals around the world, but have often been banned in his home country. In 2005, Makhmalbaf had to leave the country after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due to his involvement with the Green Movement. He also released more than 30 books, translated in various languages.

On the occasion of his presence at Fica Vesoul, we speak with him about the current situation in Iran and Afghanistan, him not being able to return, the Internet, the impact of cinema, religion and education, the importance of music in films, mixing...

Reza Dormishian was born in 1981 in Tehran. He studied English Language and in 1997 started writing as a film critic for several newspapers. He was an assistant to some prestigious Iranian filmmakers, including Dariush Mehrjui and worked as a screenwriter. He started making short films in 2002. His first feature film, “Hatred”, has been selected in Montreal and Venice Film Festival. His next movies are all selected and awarded in international festivals.

Fatemah Motamed-Arya was born in Tehran, Iran in 1961. From her very young age, she participated in theater dramas and muppet shows in Kanoon-e-Parvaresh in Tehran. She is a graduate of the Tehran Art Academy. She has won more than 30 acting awards. She has won more than any other Iranian actress and earned recognition as Best Iranian Actres ever. She apparead in more than 45 long features under supervision of people such as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Abbas Kiarostami or Bharam Beyzai…...

Zhang Lu’s “Yanagawa” (China), Hong Sung-eun’s “Aloners” (South Korea) and Fujimoto Akio’s “Along the Sea” (Japan/Vietnam) were among the top award winners at France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas.

“Yanagawa,” which opened the 2021 Pingyao Film Festival, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury. “Aloners,” which has previously won awards at Jeonju and Torino, won the international jury prize and the Netpac jury award.

The grand jury prize went to San Sebastian, Tokyo and Fajr player “Along the Sea,” which also won the festival’s critic’s choice award and the National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (Inalco) jury prize. The Inalco jury also recognized Da Fei’s “The Coffin Painter” (China).

The international jury accorded special mentions to Chung Mong-Hong’s Venice selection “The Falls” (Taiwan), Brillante Mendoza’s Busan Kim Ji Seok Award winner...

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the Iranian auteur who is a leading voice in art house film, says independent cinema is dying in the era of streaming video.

Makhmalbaf, director of Cannes prize winner “Kandahar,” Sitges and Tokyo winner “Gabbeh” and Venice winner “The Silence,” says that while streaming presents an opportunity to show a film to many people, it also “destroys other kinds of medium.”

“You can eat your food in your room, but why do you go to a restaurant to eat with others?,” asks Makhmalbaf. “If you are religious, you can go and pray in your room, but you go to a church or temple or mosque, because you want to do it with others. You can see the film in your mobile phone alone, but you go to the cinema to see film with others.”

“Cinema is dying in this way. Because except festivals, in many countries, we don’t have cinema,...

France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas kicks off Feb. 1 with a gala screening of Iranian auteur Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s 2001 Cannes winner “Kandahar” and will conclude on Feb. 8 with Kazakhstan filmmaker Yerlan Nurmukhambetov’s “The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time.”

The guest of honor at the festival’s 28th edition will be Japanese filmmaker Fukada Koji, who will be presented with an Honorary Cyclo at the opening ceremony. All 10 of Fukada’s features and four shorts will be presented at Vesoul, marking the first complete retrospective for the filmmaker. In all, 20 films from Japan will play at the festival, including Nakano Ryota’s “The Asadas” and Miyazaki Hayao’s “My Neighbor Totoro.”

The festival also pays tribute to Chinese master Xie Fei, whose masterpiece “Woman Sesame Oil Maker” won the Berlin Golden Bear in 1993.

This year, the international competition jury is presided over by Leila Hatami, Berlin Silver...

Producer and European Film Academy Chair Mike Downey is being honored with the Kristián Lifetime Achievement Award, at the Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest.

The award will be presented at the opening of the festival on Friday by Oscar nominated and BAFTA winning British filmmaker Stephen Daldry. The honor is in recognition of Downey’s services to cinema.

Downey was the founder, with producing partner Samantha Taylor, of Film and Music Entertainment (F&me) in 2000. He has more than 100 producer credits, including Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan” and Fatmir Koçi’s “Elvis Walks Home.”

On the humanitarian front, Downey was part of the team that launched the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (Icfr) at the Venice Film Festival in 2020. The Icfr aims to activate the film community’s collective response to filmmakers who face political persecution for their work.

“In the difficult times which we are all experiencing,” said Downey,...

Before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, when the Taliban ruled over the country, women were barred from public life, schools for girls were shuttered, and non-religious art was banned. In the subsequent two decades, women have become politicians, girls have been educated, and the country’s films have gained international attention. But that’s all threatened now that the Taliban has once again seized control of Afghanistan, Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi wrote in a recent open letter.

Karimi, who in 2019 was appointed as the first woman to lead the state-run Afghan Film company, posted the letter on Twitter on Friday. In it, she pleads with members of the international film community to use their voices to fight the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

“Everything that I have worked so hard to build as a filmmaker in my country is at risk of falling,” Karimi wrote. “If the Taliban...

Third quarter theatrical release planned.

Corinth Films, the arthouse distributor that has worked with Nadav Lapid and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, has acquired US rights from WaZabi Films to You Will Remember Me.

Corinth plans a third quarter theatrical release for Éric Tessier’s film, which echoes the themes of The Father starring recent best actor Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins.

Based on the play by François Archambault, You Will Remember Me stars Rémy Girard (The Barbarian Invasions) as Edouard, a public figure and retired history teacher who is slowly losing his memory.

Edouard withdraws from the public eye even though he still has a lot to say.

Ramin Bahrani, Oscar-nominated writer/director of The White Tiger, discusses a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The White Tiger (2021)

Man Push Cart (2005)

Chop Shop (2007)

99 Homes (2015)

The Boys From Fengkuei (1983)

The Time To Live And The Time To Die (1985)

The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

La Terra Trema (1948)

Umberto D (1952)

Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987)

Nomadland (2020)

The Runner (1984)

Bashu, the Little Stranger (1989)

A Moment Of Innocence a.k.a. Bread And Flower Pot (1996)

The House Is Black (1963)

The Conversation (1974)

Mean Streets (1973)

Nashville (1975)

Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972)

The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

Paris, Texas (1984)

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)

Vagabond (1985)

Luzzu (2021)

Bait (2019)

Sweet Sixteen (2002)

Abigail’s Party (1977)

Meantime (1983)

Fish Tank (2009)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Malcolm X (1992)

Nothing But A Man (1964)

Goodbye Solo (2008)

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)

Dekalog (1989)

The Double Life Of Veronique...

Yaron Shamir appointed acting artistic director of the festival in Israel.

Pnina Blayer, artistic director of Israel’s Haifa International Film Festival (Hiff), is retiring after 33 years in the role.

Marking her long service, Blayer has been named honorary president of Hiff and will curate a programme titled A Personal View. She will also continue to serve as a consultant to the festival, which usually takes place in the port city of Haifa in early October.

Yaron Shamir, who was festival director at last year’s online-only 36th edition, has been appointed acting artistic director of the festival and acting director of Haifa Cinematheque.

InterviewActor Vishnu Govindhan talks to Tnm about ‘Attention Please’, which has been selected for screening at the International Film Festival of Kerala, and his other projects.CrisSix years ago, Vishnu Govindhan stood alongside other delegates of the International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk), inside a packed theatre, protesting that they too be allowed to watch Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The President. They had all waited under the sun for two hours in a long queue and when their turn came to get in, the seats were all taken and they were asked to leave. The protesters’ demands finally led to the movie being paused for long minutes until the projectionist said that the license would expire if the film’s not played soon. Everyone quietened down and all of the audience stood up to watch the movie together. This year Vishnu is a guest at the same festival, lead actor of...

Respected festival executive also co-founded the Montreal Film Festival and was a long-time regional programmer for Toronto.

Dimitri Eipides, a former director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), has died aged 82.

A statement from TIFF confirmed that Eipides died on Wednesday (January 6). He had been in frail health for some time, according to those close to him, and was recently admitted to hospital with pneumonia in Athens, where he died.

Eipides stepped down as director of TIFF in 2016, having overseen Greece’s leading film event since 2010. He also resigned as director of Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, an event he founded...

After highlighting the most overlooked films of 2020, today we’re putting a spotlight on the films that need a home to be seen in the first place: the 40 or so films (and honorable mentions) that we loved on the festival circuit that are still seeking U.S. distribution.

Acting also as a 2020 preview, we hope that highlighting these titles spurs some distributor interests and a release in the next twelve months. Featuring favorites from Berlinale, SXSW, Sundance, TIFF, NYFF, Rotterdam, and beyond, make sure to follow us on Twitter to get the latest distribution updates. As we move into 2021, one can also track all of our upcoming festival coverage here.

200 Meters (Ameen Nayfeh)

In a time where the Israeli occupation of Palestine is still causing the deaths of children, the separation of families, and the oppression of Palestinian citizens, a film like 200 Meters becomes even more necessary and relevant.

Half the trick lies in the casting. Anil Kapoor plays Anil Kapoor. Anurag Kashyap plays Anurag Kashyap. They get to badmouth each other exposing the other's fallacies in the build-up to an engaging thriller overflowing with wry wit.

Ak Vs Ak has to be the quirkiest film Bollywood made this year.

Vikramaditya Motwane's film thrives on its sheer absence of genre-specifics. It involves real people playing out a fictional storyline, and yet the narrative coldly draws from their lives to set up make-belief. The mocku-mentary style narrative plays out with the clinical precision of a true story, except that none of it actually ever happened.

Avinash Sampath's story is a two-liner. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap (as himself) and veteran Bollywood star Anil Kapoor (as himself) are at loggerheads. The filmmaker kidnaps Sonam Kapoor (as herself), daughter of the star, and sets off the senior actor on a frantic search,...

New Foreign

“Parasite” is an often-brutal examination of wealth inequality, and yet its Best Picture win still counts as one of the few universally uplifting moments that 2020 had to offer. This Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection arrives fully-loaded with extras, including director Bong Joon Ho’s black-and-white rendering of the film — anything but an afterthought, it’s a version that he and cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong had in mind all along — commentaries, interviews, and a new essay from onetime TheWrap film critic Inkoo Kang.

Also available: Cameroonian college students get pulled into the dark web to pull a “Scam République” (IndiePix); anime saga “Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna” (Shout/Toei) celebrates the franchise’s 20th anniversary; “Three Comrades” (IndiePix) go out to unwind on a Friday night and wind up on an unexpected spree.

Chilean stop-motion feature “The Wolf House” (KimStim) uses unsettling visuals to spin a fable about the...

With each October comes the Chicago International Film Festival, but with 2020 also comes a pandemic. Yes, Ciff is rightfully falling in the same school as several other festivals this year. It’s virtual! Of course, that means I get to sit giddy and bleary-eyed in my apartment for days on end instead of downtown. Insert a joke here about this being the future liberals want. The future is still a thing, right?

But enough of that. This year, the festival’s 56th iteration is keeping the communal experience alive against all odds. By expanding its Special Presentations program into Special Presentations and Drive-Ins, Ciff is showing a handful of their selections at ChiTown Movies at 2343 S. Throop St.

Alas, I don’t have a car. That’s okay, though; my first movie turned out to be quite good. It was Sabine Lubbe Bakker & Niels van Koevorden’s Becoming Mona (Grade:...

Lesotho filmmaker Lemohang’s Jeremiah Mosese’s drama is proving a hit with festival juries worldwide.

Lesotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s drama This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection has won best international film at the 36th Haifa International Film Festival’s Carmel Competition.

The win adds to a growing number of awards for the feature which world premiered earlier this year at Sundance and also won best narrative feature at the Hamptons International Film Festival in the US over the weekend.

Set against the backdrop of a rural community in Lesotho in southern Africa, it revolves...

International competition will go ahead with Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf acting as jury president.

The Haifa International Film Festival (Hiff) has anounced that its 36th edition is moving entirely online following the Israeli government’s recent decision to impose a three-week nationwide lockdown to combat the surge of Covid-19 cases in the country.

The festival, which usually unfolds against the vibrant backdrop of the port city of Haifa, said the 2020 edition would still take place during its announced dates of October 3-10, but with a mix of digital screenings and video-call meetings rather than physical events.

This year’s programme,...

The festival awarded cash prizes to projects that have stalled at various stages of production due to Covid-19.

Lucrecia Martel’s Chocobar has won the top international prize in the Locarno Film Festival’s The Films After Tomorrow initiative, for projects that have stalled at various stages of production due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The festival is running as a hybrid event from August 5-15.

Hybrid documentary Chocobar is Martel’s first foray into non-fiction and centres on the murder of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar by a white landowner. It was named best international project by the international jury, made up of Nadav Lapid,...

The festival awarded cash prizes to projects that have stalled at various stages of production due to Covid-19.

Lucrecia Martel’s Chocobar has won the top international prize in the Locarno Film Festival’s The Films After Tomorrow initiative, for projects that have stalled at various stages of production due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The festival is running as a hybrid event from August 5-15.

Hybrid documentary Chocobar is Martel’s first foray into non-fiction and centres on the murder of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar by a white landowner. It was named best international project by the international jury, made up of Nadav Lapid,...

In his youth, Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf was involved with a militant anti-Shah group. During one protest, then 17-year-old Makhmalbaf stabbed a policeman, was arrested and imprisoned until he was released during the Iranian revolution in the 1970s. The event itself troubled the director for quite some time as it was crucial for his development as a person as well as an artist, which is why he finally decided to confront it in his 1996 feature “A Moment of Innocence”, a movie that, like most of his other works, was banned in Iran, but praised especially by European and American critics who compared it to Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows”, for example.

At the center of the story, we have Mohsen Makhmalbaf playing himself as a director attempting to make a feature film about an event in his youth which led to his imprisonment and defined himself. In order to...

After yesterday’s unveiling of the Venice line-up, the sales announcements have rolled in:

Celluloid Dreams has boarded international sales on Sun Children, which screens in competition. The company previously repped director Majid Majidi’s debut feature Baduk back in 1991. The new feature is the story of 12-year-old Ali and his three friends. When Ali is entrusted to find hidden treasure underground, he recruits his gang to help.

U.S. outfit Arclight will handle world rights on The Furnace, the directing debut of Australian writer Roderick MacKay. It stars Ahmed Malek, Jay Ryan and David Wenham in a story set in 1890s gold rush-era Australia. Umbrella Films will distribute the film in Australia and New Zealand. Pic plays in Venice’s Horizons strand.

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival, which is taking place in a hybrid physical-online form this year, has set its opening night feature as Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow.